Kazakh footwear ‘masi’ dating early 1900 displayed at British Museum (PHOTOS)
About 25 pairs of shoes, slippers, sandals, clogs and boots are being showcased together for the first time. Dating from 1800 onwards, they demonstrate the important role footwear has always played in the social and cultural life of people living in these regions. The exhibition presents a variety of regional styles, materials, embellishments and shoe manufacturing traditions. It examines shoes as status symbols, class indicators and diplomatic gifts.
The display includes shoes for bathing rituals, children, specific vocations, extreme environments and ceremonial occasions. A pair of richly embroidered red leather slippers (tarkasin), made in Ghadamis, Libya, would have formed an important part of a bride’s wedding trousseau.
Luxuriant stilted bath clogs (qabqab) from 19th-century Ottoman Turkey, over 10 inches high, would have been worn by an urban, upper-class woman.
A pair of qabqab made in 2014 by Palestinian fashion designer Omar Joseph Nasser-Khoury uses the form of these iconic sandals to comment on contemporary Middle Eastern politics.
Delicately patterned men’s leather loafers from early 20th-century Pakistan combine western footwear styles with South Asian opulence.
Together, these shoes express identities, beliefs, traditions and lifestyles of people from across the Islamic world. They represent the significance of footwear in Islamic social and cultural life and the impact of international trade and politics on footwear fashions.
Among these items is a pair of boots from Kazakhstan dating early 1900s. Made for men and women these soft, light, indoor boots (called ‘ichigi’ or ‘masi’) have thin, flat soles. They are decorated with brightly coloured leather appliqué patterns that evoke the natural world such as beetles, rams’ horns and cat faces. Leather overshoes are worn over these boots to protect them from the dirt and moisture outside.
Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/